Celibacy

For some it is a struggle, for others celibacy/chastity is a reward. For further insight into this "different culture" I quote from the biography of one of the greatest teachers of all time, Mahatma Gandhi, his chapters on Brahmacharya. I believe an understanding of Brahmacharya will help us understand the spiritual significance of chastity, particularly in the Hindu culture and its descendant, Buddhism. In Gandhi's case, he became so convinced of the importance of this spiritual principle, that he became chaste but not celibate. He was married, but abstinent. He was a lay person, but he still felt the necessity of chastity for his spiritual advancement.

Gandhi is drawn to this principle by an examination of faithfulness and devotion. He takes vows of chastity for personal reasons and only later reads about the tradition of brahmacharya in the Sutras.

What then, I asked myself, should be my relation with my wife? Did my faithfulness consist in making my wife the instrument of my lust? So long as I was the slave of lust, my faithfulness was worth nothing.

In this decision, Gandhi was influenced by a conversation with one Raychandbhai who pointed out that devotion in its pure state should not be confined to a relationship such as marriage. Devotion could be demonstrated by a servant or a relative, or anyone. Therefore devotion that, in fact requires special effort, such as devotion of a servant to the master, is a more pure form of devotion.

Gandhi took vows of chastity in 1906 and maintained this state for 20 years while remaining devoted to his wife.

This is akin to the Buddhist principle of non-attachment. This is also akin to the Buddhist principle of seeing the Buddha in every being and realizing that every being on this planet was at one time our mother. Therefore our concern should be not only for family, but for all beings equally.

Gandhi found that his practice of Brahmacharya gave him energy to focus upon his movement for freedom: Satyagraha.He saw the latter as the outgrowth of the former. He enlarged his scope of compassion and devotion to include masses of mankind.

Then this is the underlying argument for chastity in the religious life, one strives to conquer the senses and the physical body so as to be free of them. This is a desirable state because only then is the being free to be of true service.

Gandhi struggled with chastity on

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